1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to telescope mounting systems for guns, and particularly to telescope mounting systems which enable a telescope to be conveniently and rapidly mounted to or dismounted from a gun.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of gun sight or telescope mounts have been proposed and utilized. A very high degree of precision is required for gun telescope mounts in order to obtain and retain a desired level of accuracy in aligning the telescope to the bore of the rifle on which it is mounted. It is very desirable that the telescope be easily mountable and dismountable without changing the alignment between the cross-hairs of the telescope and the bore of the gun or rifle due to the fact that the procedure for obtaining such alignment is a tedious and time-consuming task. In order to protect a telescope to prevent it from being damaged and/or "knocked out" of alignment due to rough handling, it is desirable to be able to easily remove the telescope during transporting or storage of the gun to which it is mounted.
One prior system which enables a telescope to be quickly mounted and dismounted from a rifle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,856,549, issued to Griffin. The disclosed device includes a base block attached to the rifle breach with a dovetail aligned with the direction of the rifle bore. The dovetail forms a tongue fitting into a mating female dovetail recess attached to a pair of forward scope clamp rings. A lever is attached to a shaft which extends through a mounting block in which the female dovetail recess is located. The shaft has a flat surface thereon. The male dovetail has a corresponding transverse semi-circular groove into which the rounded portion of the shaft tightly fits when the telescope is rigidly mounted. The handle can be turned so that the flat surface of the shaft is co-planar with the upper surface of male dovetail stud, allowing the telescope assembly to be quickly dismounted from the rifle. The telescope mounting system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,856,549 includes a large number of extensive precision surfaces, and is consequently very expensive. For example, a presently commercially available device embodying the principles of U.S. Pat. No. 1,856,549 now retails for roughly $100.
Another commonly available telescope mounting system, referred to as a "Redfield mount", is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,837,290. A scope mounting system somewhat similar to the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,837,290 retails for roughly $30 and provides an acceptable degree of precision and convenience. The device utilizes a forward mounting block into which a male dovetail from a forward telescope clamp or ring fits and is tightened as a telescope to which the forward telescope clamp is attached is rotated about the male dovetail stud. A flat lower surface of the rear clamp ring slides along a co-planar flat upper surface of the rear mounting block until it is engaged by the head of a first windage screw. The head of a second windage screw identical to the first engages the rear clamp ring, rigidly securing the rear clamp ring and the rear mounting block together. Both windage screws are screwed tightly into threaded holes in the rear mounting block. Both have large cylindrical heads with flanges with beveled inner surfaces which mate with correspondingly beveled semicircular grooves in opposed sides of the rear clamp ring. One of the screws in the presently marketed device must be completely removed by means of a coin or a thick bladed screwdriver in order to mount or dismount the assembly, including the clamp rings and the telescope from the mounting blocks. This often results in a substantial inconvenience to the hunter, since a screwdriver or properly sized coin must be located to loosen the second windage screw by turning it approximately six turns to remove it from its hole and care must be taken not to lose the screw, as can often happen under field conditions on hunting trips, especially under weak lighting conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,837,290 discloses an impractical embodiment wherein one windage screw is replaced by an assembly including a cylindrical, slotted nut and a threaded shaft pivotally attached to the rear mounting block. When the cylindrical nut is loosened, the threaded shaft can be pivoted downward so that the rear clamp ring can be slid sideways along the flat upper surface of the rear mounting block, avoiding the cylindrical nut. However, this system has been unsatisfactory and is not now commercially utilized due to its inherent weakness and greater cost than the presently available Redfield mount. Another disadvantage to the disclosed system is that the cylindrical nut has a slot engagable by a screwdriver to facilitate tightening and loosening the nut. However, when the nut is tightened with the telescope mount in place, the threaded shaft extends through the slot so that a specialized screwdriver is required to loosen the cylindrical nut to permit dismounting of the telescope.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved gun telescope mounting system which is highly accurate, yet is substantially less expensive than prior art gun telescope mounting systems which allow rapid removal of a telescope without removal of any screws or other parts.
Another object of the invention is to provide a telescope mounting system which permits mounting and dismounting of the scope without use of a screwdriver or other tool.
Yet another object of the invention to provide a mounting system which facilitates mounting or dismounting of the scope without complete removal of a windage screw.
Still another object of the invention is to reduce the amount of times required to mount and dismount a telescope from a gun compared to the corresponding times required for known telescope mounting systems.
A novelty search directed to the present invention uncovered, in addition to the two patents referred to above, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,945,142; 2,810,963; 3,877,167; 2,407,977 and 1,835,576.